It has been known that fine grooves may be formed by an etching method using a base material such as silicon, quartz, glass or polymer to manufacture a liquid passage or a separation gel channel (for example, R. M. McCormick et al., “Analytical Chemistry”, page 2626, Vol. 69, 1997), and that a cover such as a glass plate is used in a state of being fixed by screw-fastening, fusion, or bonding for the purpose of preventing vaporization of a liquid during the operation.
However, fixation by screw-screw-fastening is likely to cause leakage of a liquid between laminated base materials or between the base material and the cover, while fusion and bonding require a very long time, resulting in extremely poor productivity. According to the material and method, it is difficult to form a microdevice having a multi-layered structure wherein passages and other void portions are formed continuously in three layers, and it is considerably difficult to form a microdevice wherein numerous fragile thin layers are laminated.
Also, the journal of “SCIENCE” (Vol. 288, page 113, 2000) discloses a method of forming a silicone rubber member having grooves on the surface using a casting method, interposing a silicone rubber sheet between two members and bonding them to form capillary passages which three-dimensionally intersect.
However, these two passages are independent passages and it was impossible to form thin capillary passages which pierce through the respective layers to communicate with each other. It was particularly impossible to industrially manufacture a microdevice having a multi-layered structure composed of a layer, which is too thin to support itself, using a flexible material and it was also impossible to manufacture a microdevice which can perform complicated reaction and analysis processes. Furthermore, there was a drawback in that the application is limited because the silicone rubber considerably adsorbs the biological substance and it requires a long time to cure the silicone rubber, resulting in extremely low productivity.
A microdevice formed of an active energy ray curable resin can be manufactured with very high productivity because bonding can be performed by a method of bringing an active energy ray curable resin into contact with another member in a semi-cured state and irradiating again with an active energy ray in that state, thereby completely curing the resin, without using an adhesive.
However, according to this method, it was difficult to laminate numerous films having a cut portion, which are too thin to support themselves while aligning the microcut portions from an industrial point of view. Particularly, in the case in which the cut portion of the resin layer is in the form of a continuous line, a curve or numerous lines, it becomes more difficult to handle the film. A method of forming capillary passages, which pierce through the respective layers to communicate with each other, is heretofore not known. Also, there is no known microdevice obtained by laminating three or more films each having a cut portion, which are made of an active energy ray curable resin and are too thin to support themselves, while aligning the microcut portions.